The final countdown is over, Intel has officially launched their Kaby Lake 200-series platforms. The lineup is part of the annual refresh cycle that Intel offers to desktop PC consumers and as such, motherboard vendors have amassed a handsome array of Z270 and H270 series motherboards for gamers, PC builders, enthusiasts and overclockers.

(NOTE: This post is being updated as more products and prices are confirmed for 200-series motherboards)

The Kaby Lake motherboards are launching alongside the Z270 and H270 series motherboards. We won’t discuss the processors much as we have already covered their performance and specifications in our Z270 reviews. The main focus of this post will be the platform specific boards from various manufacturers.

Intel Core i7-7700K – The Fastest Core i7 Kaby Lake Processor:

The Intel Core i7-7700K processor is the fastest Core i7 chip in the Kaby Lake lineup. This chip features a quad core, hyper-threaded design. The chip is based on the latest 14nm Plus process node which delivers improved efficiency and performance on the existing 14nm FinFET technology. The clock speeds are rated 4.2 GHz base and 4.5 GHz boost. The processor packs 8 MB of L3 cache and has a TDP of 91W. The Core i7-7700K CPU will retail at $305 US.

Intel Core i5-7600K – The Fastest Core i5 Kaby Lake Processor:

The Intel Core i5-7600K processor is the fastest Core i5 chip in the Kaby Lake lineup. This chip features a quad core, non hyper-threaded design. The chip is based on the latest 14nm Plus process node which delivers improved efficiency and performance on the existing 14nm FinFET technology. The clock speeds are rated 3.8 GHz base and 4.2 GHz boost. The processor packs 6 MB of L3 cache and has a TDP of 91W.

Other updates include a new Intel HD 630 chipset. The new graphics chip will feature 24 execution units and would be slightly faster compared to HD 530 due to increased clock speeds achieved on 14nm+. The Core i5-7600K CPU will retail at $217 US.

Intel Core i3-7350K – The Fastest Core i3 Kaby Lake Processor:

The Intel Core i3-7350K processor is the fastest Core i3 chip in the Kaby Lake lineup. This chip features a dual core, multi-threaded design. The chip is based on the latest 14nm Plus process node which delivers improved efficiency and performance on the existing 14nm FinFET technology. The clock speeds are rated 4.0 GHz base and 4.2 GHz boost.

The processor packs 4 MB of L3 cache and will have a TDP around 91W. The Core i3-7350K CPU will retail for $157 US.

Intel 7th Generation 'Kaby Lake' Desktop Lineup

SKU Name

Cores/Threads

Core Clock

Boost Clock

L3 Cache

TDP

Socket

Price

Core i7-7700K

4/8

4.2 GHz

4.5 GHz

8 MB

91W

LGA1151

$339 US

Core i7-7700

4/8

3.6 GHz

4.2 GHz

8 MB

65W

LGA1151

$303 US

Core i7-7700T

4/8

2.9 GHz

3.8 GHz

8 MB

35W

LGA1151

$303 US

Core i5-7600K

4/4

3.8 GHz

4.2 GHz

6 MB

91W

LGA1151

$242 US

Core i5-7600

4/4

3.5 GHz

4.1 GHz

6 MB

65W

LGA1151

$213 US

Core i5-7600T

4/4

2.8 GHz

3.7 GHz

6 MB

35W

LGA1151

$213 US

Core i5-7500

4/4

3.4 GHz

3.8 GHz

6 MB

65W

LGA1151

$192 US

Core i5-7500T

4/4

2.7 GHz

3.3 GHz

6 MB

35W

LGA1151

$192 US

Core i5-7400

4/4

3.0 GHz

3.5 GHz

6 MB

65W

LGA1151

$182 US

Core i5-7400T

4/4

2.4 GHz

3.0 GHz

6 MB

35W

LGA1151

$182 US

Core i3-7350K

2/4

4.2 GHz

N/A

4 MB

60W

LGA 1151

$168 US

Core i3-7320

2/4

4.1 GHz

N/A

4 MB

TBD

LGA 1151

$149 US

Core i3-7300

2/4

4.0 GHz

N/A

4 MB

51W

LGA1151

$138 US

Core i3-7300T

2/4

3.5 GHz

N/A

4 MB

35W

LGA1151

$138 US

Core i3-7100

2/4

3.9 GHz

N/A

4 MB

51W

LGA 1151

$117 US

Core i3-7100T

2/4

3.4 GHz

N/A

4 MB

35W

LGA 1151

$117 US

Pentium G4620

2/4

3.7 GHz

N/A

3 MB

51W

LGA1151

$86 US

Pentium G4600

2/4

3.6 GHz

N/A

3 MB

51W

LGA 1151

$75 US

Pentium G4560

2/4

3.5 GHz

N/A

3MB

54W

LGA 1151

$64 US

Pentium G3950

2/2

3.0 GHz

N/A

2 MB

35W

LGA1151

$52 US

Pentium G3930

2/2

2.9 GHz

N/A

2 MB

35W

LGA1151

$42 US

Intel Z270 Express Chipset – The Top 200-Series PCH

The two chipsets that will be offered with the new Kaby Lake processors are Z270 and H270. Intel will be offering support for the Kaby Lake and Skylake processors on both 100-series and 200-series motherboards. This means that consumers can use their Skylake chips on a 200-series board or a Kaby Lake chip on a 100-series board.

The two new chips are marketed towards specific markets. The Z270 series is aimed at the consumer market while the H270 series is aimed at the consumer and corporate market. We will get on to the features of these chipsets which is an update from the previous 100-series generation of products.

Intel Z270 and H270 PCH Features

Intel Z270 and Z170 offer the same CPU PCI-e configuration support. They allow for 1 x 16, 2 x 8 or 1 x 8 + 2 x 4 config whereas the H270 and H170 chipset offers just 1 x 16 config. The total number of independent DisplayPorts offered by the PCH are three and power up to four memory DIMMs in dual channel mode. The Z Series offers overclocking support while the H Series is restricted from such support. All chipsets offer Intel SmartSound tech but Intel AIB partners will be offering their own custom audio codecs to power audio.

Moving on, the new 200-series has official support for Optane technology which is not available on 100-series products. Intel Rapid Storage technology is also pushed to 15 (was 14 on 100-series). Some other features in the new chipsets include RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support, PCI-e Storage Drive support, Smart Response Technology and I/O port flexibility.

Intel has increased the number of high-speed I/O lanes to 30 on both 200-series chipsets. The Z170 had 26 while the H170 had 22 lanes. The total number of USB ports have remained the same at 14 (10 USB 3.0) for Z Series and 14 (8 USB 3.0) for H Series. All boards will have 6 SATA III 6 GB/s ports. Expansion slots would be powered by 24 PCI-e lanes on Z270 and 20 PCI-e lanes on H270. This is a slight increase over 20 PCI-e lanes on Z170 and 16 on H170.

Below, you can see all the pictures of the Z270, H270 and B250 motherboards that will be available today. We will keep updating this post with more pictures and confirmed MSRPs but until then, we can only post what we have officially received from the manufacturers. Our reviews for various Z270 motherboards can be seen in the links below: